Unterman, Iser Yehuda

Born in Brest-Litovsk in the family of rabbi Elyahu Unterman and Sheina, daughter of rabbi Elkhanan Fisher. He studied at yeshivas in the town of Malech , the modern Brest region , in the World , Volozhin . In 1910 he headed the yeshiva (rosh yeshiva) in the town of Vishnevo , and then was a rabbi in Mogilny and Mstibovo in Belarus. In 1921-1924 - rabbi of the city of Grodno . Unterman was an ardent supporter of the Mizrahi movement and one of the prominent rabbis who supported this movement. In 1921, he was a delegate to the XII Zionist Congress , and later attended other Zionist congresses. In 1924 he was elected Rabbi of Liverpool , soon mastered the English language and gained fame in the Jewish community of England. He was president of the national organization Mizrahi , vice president of the British branches of the Jewish National Fund and Keren ha-Yesod . In 1946, he was elected the chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Tel Aviv . In 1964 - 1972 he was the supreme Ashkenazic rabbi of Israel .

He held this position in parallel with the rabbi Yitzhak Nisim , who served as the Sephardic rabbi. In 1973, rabbis were re-elected, for the first time in the history of the chief rabbinate, and both chief rabbis lost their posts. Instead of Unterman, Rabbi Shlomo Goren was elected, and instead of Isaac Nishim, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef .

Rav Unterman held a facilitating opinion on many issues, supported the state of Israel and its institutions. Among his decrees: permission to shake hands with a woman, if she reaches out first, does not know the laws and may consider refusing to give her a hand as a personal insult. Despite a liberal approach to halakhah, he was against mobilizing women in the Israeli army and opposed Rabbi Goren, who allowed his illegitimate brother and sister to marry.

• Iser Yehuda Unterman - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia